Jerry Falwell: He Changed America's Politics
Lynchburg, Va.
I am sitting in the sanctuary of the new Thomas Road Baptist Church. It’s a warm and beautiful day, May 22, 2007 and we’re waiting for the funeral services to beg
I see and speak to many old friends in this somber but joyous occasion. What I’m remembering most is Jerry Falwell, the man. He was a dynamic preacher, a determined man of vision, an educator and a political activist. I chuckle now because he’s the man who put “the fear of God” into politics and to politicians of America. I’m glad he did. He changed the course of the nation in the 20th century, and even into the 21st. He gave opportunity to many people.
Few people have the opportunity to see their vision, their life-long plans, completed. Jerry Falwell did and worked at it 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days in the year. His commitment was to Thomas Road Baptist Church and the congregation and to Liberty University and the students and faculty. He cared for people, young and old and kept those friendships.
Jerry Falwell died at 73 unexpectedly on May 15. As we wait for the service to begin today, I’m can recall vividly a Saturday in May 1971, 36 years ago. I was 31 years old, Jerry 37. It’s 7:30 in the morning and I hear a horn tooting …“shave and a haircut, two bits” … something like this “da … dada … da … da … da…da.”
In his green Buick station wagon, Falwell had come by Harvey’s Motel on Wards Road, Lynchburg to pick me up for a scheduled newspaper interview. I’d come to Lynchburg with my family at the assignment of my paper, the Newport News (Va.) Daily Press. I was researching a story on the little known Central Virginia preacher. He’d been making some news building a church for thousands and a college, then called Lynchburg Baptist College. He told me right off he had planned to be a “journalist, a newspaperman.”
I had planned to meet him in his church office around 9:30. Not this morning though. He was scheduled to speak around 11:30. I thought it would be in town. Nothing doing. We drove straight to Lynchburg’s Preston Glenn Airport and hopped aboard a four-seat single-engine plane. I still didn’t know our destination. The only thing he had with him was a Scofield King James version Bible. I had a reporters’ notebook and tape recorder.
We took off. “We’re going to Lanham, Md. It won’t take long. We’ll be there in 45 minutes or so. I’m speaking to the Assemblies of God Sunday School convention.” This was the beginning of an adventure with him that in later years would become a normal thing, only I’d be traveling around the country with him.
I began to receive my education about this entrepreneurial figure, a man who didn’t like to lose, a man who didn’t like to be told no or that something couldn’t be done. He didn’t like to be around lazy people. He needed only three hours a sleep nightly, he told me on tape. “Sleep really is a waste of time and life’s too short.”
Jimmy Falwell, his cousin, was flying the plane that morning. Just after takeoff, Jerry roared, “Jimmy, let’s fly over Candler’s Mountain.” Jimmy Falwell arched the plane and we circled the mountain area. Jerry instantly played tour guide, a role he always enjoyed. He spilled his plans for the vast mountainside over the next 25 years. He had the plane swoop down over a nice old country house. It was the Carter Glass Mansion, home of the famed Virginia U. S. senator. Glass wrote the 1919 Federal Reserve Act for President Woodrow Wilson. Jerry noted that the mansion faced the railroad tracks. On Sunday evenings, the senator would walk down this dusty lane to meet the train for his 5:30 trip back to Washington. Today, Al Worthington Field, home of the Liberty Flames baseball team, makes up part of this gorgeous mountain property. That was a nice history lesson.
Then Jerry turned serious and began to outline his plans in various increments. He hoped to acquire the property eventually and to move the fast-growing Thomas Road Baptist Church from Thomas Road in Lynchburg to Candler’s Mountain, which was a long way off. But, “one day, we’ll have a university there. I want to see 50,000 students from all over the world on campus,” he said. (Liberty University moved to Candler’s Mountain in the early 1980s.) At the time, Liberty Baptist College had less than 1,000 students and Jerry’s biggest school was Lynchburg Christian Academy, kindergarten through 12th grade. Now, some 25,000 students are enrolled in the overall university’s academic programs, including Liberty Seminary, Liberty School of Law and other entities. There will be 10,000 students on campus in September 2007.
After showing the undeveloped mountain property, our plane resumed the trip to Lanham, Md., in the greater Washington, D. C. area.
The plane ride discussion that day, which was recorded on a cassette diskette. He outlined his determination to attract the best and brightest musicians, athletes and students from all walks of life. He promoted the ministries traveling all over the country. He constantly preached individual churches, conducted revivals, “always preaching the Gospel of Christ.”
Falwell’s vision is his legacy. “I believe in using whatever means I can to reach the goals,” he said. He worked long hours every day to do it. He insisted Thomas Road to be the biggest. In the 1970s, it was the first mega-church. He was a prime mover in evangelical church circles. Thomas Road had almost 15,000 members in the 1970s, some 20,000 in 1980 and reached 22,000 members in 1980s.
After landing in Lanham, he spoke for 45 minutes, met the people and then back to the plane for the trip home. I was a bit tired from all the traveling. But Falwell was exhilarated and couldn’t wait to fly home to Lynchburg. The church’s picnic was on tap that afternoon. Soon as we hit the ground in Lynchburg, he was on his car phone checking in, making certain all the arrangements were in order, that the food was prepared, that the musicians were ready and the turnout was going to be good. He was on top of every detail. He loved crowds.
What has intrigued me, even 36 years later, is Jerry Falwell’s vision, his determination and hard work. He loved his family and congregation. He cared for every one. He loved “eatin’ meetin’s” and seldom missed any. He probably conducted more weddings and funerals in a month than many preachers do in a year. Falwell’s church services were always punctual no matter rain, shine or snow. No excuses.
Everything involving Rev. Jerry Falwell was a big deal. He made every event important. He was famous in Lynchburg for his big “dinners on the grounds.” One of his first was at Lynchburg City Stadium in the late 1960s with Col. Harlan Sanders, energetic founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken. Jerry used KFC buckets to take up offerings. He always preferred buckets.
He was a generous fellow almost to a fault and was an easy mark for old and new friends.
When he moved into the political arena, he was the guy who organized the various conservative political groups. It was his idea to create an organization reaching all religious denominations. He insisted on including non-religious people as well. “We must reach all moral Americans,” he said during a meeting of conservatives in the late 1970s. “We ought to have the majority of Americans on our side if we’re to change the political course of this great country. We can call it the Moral Majority.”
Distinguished political leaders like Paul Weyrich, founder of the Heritage Foundation and the Free Congress Foundation; Richard Viguerie, considered the man who made direct mail fund-raising the life blood of politicians; attorney Alan P. Dye, a leading Washington, D. C. attorney, were among the principals with Jerry Falwell. Together they formed a powerful conservative political organization that did indeed wake up America, changing the landscape of politics. It was called the Moral Majority. It spread across the land nation like wildfire.
It was Jerry Falwell, with the backing of millions of Christian Americans, who led the way for Ronald Reagan to be elected President in 1980. He set the stage for hundreds of others to become involved and elected to local, state and national offices.
Stories are legion about Jerry’s impact on the American political landscape. He was always firm in his work, his goal and his efforts. Despite what his opponents have said, he was never a mean or an unkind.
As I’m sitting here today through his emotional service, I can say Jerry Falwell was one of kind. He did something few have done, that is fulfilling a dream and a vision of a life’s work. A more kind and compassionate man I don’t think I’ve ever known. He made things happen. America’s better for it today. © Copyright 2007 by Harry Covert.
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